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Mid-Century Modern

The document discusses guidelines for designing a space in the mid-century modern style. It describes the key characteristics of mid-century modern design from the 1950s and 1960s, including refined lines, minimalist silhouettes, and natural shapes. It provides tips for color selection, common furniture styles, choosing rugs and decorations, and mid-century modern lighting designs.

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Adele Verster
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40 views

Mid-Century Modern

The document discusses guidelines for designing a space in the mid-century modern style. It describes the key characteristics of mid-century modern design from the 1950s and 1960s, including refined lines, minimalist silhouettes, and natural shapes. It provides tips for color selection, common furniture styles, choosing rugs and decorations, and mid-century modern lighting designs.

Uploaded by

Adele Verster
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Mid-Century Modern

The mid-1900s produced some of the most iconic pieces in modern design. It is


characterized by refined lines, minimalist silhouettes, and natural shapes. From
Saarinen, Niemeyer, Eames, Noguchi, Jacobsen and beyond, the mid-century
modern masters defined creative ways to use new materials like molded plastic,
plywood, and aluminum in industrial design. Its pieces are highly versatile and can
complement a myriad of design styles.
2.  Pick the Right Colors

Selecting colors is always the first step to planning your interior, since it leads your
furniture and decor selection. Mid-century colors tend to combine darker neutral
tones with saturated accent colors.

Remember to follow the usual interior design color picking tip, also called the 60-
30-10 rule. Your room colors should be 60% dominant base color, 30% secondary
color, and 10% accent color. Avoid picking more than 3 to 4 colors.

3.  Furniture Design Options

Mid-century modern furniture is easily identified by their straight, clean lines


accented with smooth, curved angles. They rarely feature any fancy ornamentation
or upholstery. This minimalist design commonly relies on wooden construction,
but can also include fiberglass or metal. They usually only have one or two colors
with no patterns.
4.  Rug & Decor Selection

Identifying mid-century patterns is critical when picking the right rug


and decor. As the harbinger of the modern design movement, mid-century modern
loved asymmetrical, abstract patterns. Typically, pure mid-century design does not
use rustic elements such as unfinished wood or aged metal, but don’t shy away
from breaking the rule if you feel creative.

Feel free to use rugs and decor with just a solid color – or even patterns that are not
from the 50s or 60s. Be creative and use your judgement to identify what fits with
your mid-century pieces.
5.  Lighting Tips & Ideas

Mid-century floor lamps and table lamps feature either very straight, geometric
lines or round, curved contour. The very contrasting shapes offer a very bold
position for lighting in your room. Mostly made of finished metal, but sometimes
with wood legs. A popular mid-century ceiling lamp design sees exposed bulbs on
straight rods radiating out of a center, though various options are available.

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